As we all know, there are different kinds of players.
Some unenlightened souls don't even know about the possibility of renaming your units (ALT + N), and fight their battles with loads of 34th Panzer IVG's, 87th Grenadier 43's, and so on, which is a blasphemy.

Apprentices of utilizing everything the game gives you will name their units like ''Oleh Dir'', ''UBER RUDEL'', ''SUPER TIGER'', which is on the path to brilliance, but still wanting.

Some pragmatic players will name their units according to their heroes, for example +2 DEF, +1 INI, +1 RNG. This is useful, but not quite fit for truly reenacting the glory of (insert army name).

And then there are people like me, who will christen their entire armies with real-life and made up units and meticulously divide them into divisions and regiments, like ''44th Rgt/Royal Lancashire Fusiliers'', ''116. Panzer-Ersatz-Abt. 254'', ''Fusilier-Regiment/Grossdeutschland'', etc. For that illustrious goal, we severely lack the number of characters available for unit naming, and often we must use abbreviations, which is alright, but not as glorious.

So, my proposition is to increase the limit of letters one can use for naming units. It would be truly illustrious.

Naming units isn't just a character limitation but also a UI limitation. Allowing a UI to fit a very large name probably isn't going to work very well when that same space is occupied by a much smaller name.

Kerensky wrote:Naming units isn't just a character limitation but also a UI limitation. Allowing a UI to fit a very large name probably isn't going to work very well when that same space is occupied by a much smaller name.

Could the font be smaller, then?
Well, larger names fit in Warhammer: Armageddon and Order of Battle, just a small rearrangement of the UI would be in order.

Furthermore, some auxiliary units in some scenarios have names which are longer than the character limit, yet they can be read ordinarily in the UI! I forgot which units in which missions, but I definitely remembered it just for the purpose of my proposition!

jeff00t wrote:lol i use +3 DEF or +5 atack names ... it is true that it is a problem to recognize ours heroes.

You're not enlightened enough...
I go as far as knowing my units by heart, at first by unit type, then by name, as well as position on the map (various divisions being given various missions).
Like: uh-huh, the Panzer 38t is Kerscher, the Somua S35 has +1 attack, the PzIV has +1 movement.
Later, in '41-'42, when I'll have a bunch of Panzer IV's with captured KV1's, I'll know who's who by map placement (this is the 27th Panzer Regiment, part of 5. Leichte, moving towards Smolensk, that's Kerscher; this is 8th Panzer, they have +1 ATT +2 DEF) and finally, by the very name itself.
In my previous early war playthrough, my 1st Cavalry regiment of the 1. Kavallerie had a +3 defense hero - so basically the firepower of the Gebirgsjaeger, plus the experience, plus the spotting range, plus the mobility, minus the fuel dependence... and I knew instantly who they were just by hovering over them.

I usually give a special name to units with unusually powerful heroes or combinations (eg +5 attack gets a suitably aggressive name).
If it's just a +1 here and there it's not so critical to track them.

Another approach (which can be used with the first) is match unit types to heroes - eg spotting hero infantry becomes cavalry or kradschutzen so the spotting is more useful, and initiative hero units become pioneers since the low ini is otherwise a weakness. Artillery with attack hero becomes heavy gun. Range heroes on artillery well, Range 2 Stug is kind of useful, so too a range 3 nebelwerfer, and units with big defence (eg 2 x 3D) make good SP units.

i prefer calling units battalions, so i usually change the names this way, sometimes even grouping the units into divisions, with units names adjusted for simpler identification which unit is supposed to be which division.

one idea for PC2 that occurred to me while reading this thread - you could introduce adjacency bonuses for units when certain unit is nearby (next hex), which would benefit the well organized armies - so let say tank unit would get CD increased if own infantry unit is nearby, Infantry could have GD vs enemy armor increased a bit when tanks or antitank guns are close, units could get Air Def increased when under range of air defense system (not only 1 hex close supporting fire) etc etc...

JaM2013 wrote:one idea for PC2 that occurred to me while reading this thread - you could introduce adjacency bonuses for units when certain unit is nearby (next hex), which would benefit the well organized armies - so let say tank unit would get CD increased if own infantry unit is nearby, Infantry could have GD vs enemy armor increased a bit when tanks or antitank guns are close, units could get Air Def increased when under range of air defense system (not only 1 hex close supporting fire) etc etc...